I'm a professor of International Business and Management at the George Washington University School of Business. Prior to joining GW, I served as Professor of Management at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. I also held a joint appointment as Professor of Sociology on NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and was Director of Executive Education at NYU-Stern from 2007-09. I've also written and edited numerous books, articles, and reports on Chinese economic reform, leadership, and corporate social responsibility, including "Dragon in a Three-Piece Suit: The Emergence of Capitalism in China" and "China and Globalization: The Economic, Political, and Social Transformation of China." I've also been the recipient of teaching awards, best paper awards, and grants from the Ford and Sloan Foundations.

A Bet Worthy of the Risk

As the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship comes to a close, it will be remembered for the winning team, of course, but also for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, a contest that offered to pay $1 billion to anyone who crafted a perfect tournament bracket. Alas, all the entrants busted.

Gilbert is that rare visionary with a loyalty to place and an eye toward the unknowable future. To date, Gilbert’s biggest gamble isn’t the bracket promotion but rather his ongoing support for the ailing city of Detroit. He has invested some $1.5 billion in the Motor City in recent years while others were running for the city limits.

Gilbert is founder and chairman of Rock Ventures, the holding company for Quicken Loans and Gilbert’s other enterprises. In August 2010, Gilbert moved Quicken Loans’ headquarters to downtown Detroit. Since then, he has shifted thousands of employees into the city. He also has purchased some 40 properties or 8 million square feet of real estate there, according to the National Journal.

Gilbert is Detroit’s de facto mayor in many respects, leading area business and political leaders in a quest to revitalize the once-majestic city and its Art Deco skyscrapers. It isn’t a Don Quixote-like pursuit for him. A Detroit-area native (he grew up in neighboring Southfield), Gilbert has a history with the city, and he’s willing to back that history up with a vision for its future.

This is urban reclamation on a grand scale, and Gilbert is a pioneer in a city that can more closely resemble an abandoned war zone than a thriving 21st century metropolis. He wisely is focusing his money and passion on the heart of the downtown. His real estate company, Bedrock Real Estate Services, is swiftly moving through those blocks renovating and building, both commercial and residential properties.

His ambitious vision is to transform the once-storied Detroit into a high-tech hub, a mecca where startups and entrepreneurs are welcomed and encouraged. It is a risk, but he is walking the talk. Bedrock’s own buildings are open for business for local startups funded by Detroit Venture Partners, a venture capital firm co-owned by Gilbert.

Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers professional basketball team, is fighting an uphill battle. Detroit’s population has been cut in half over the last 60 years. Upwards of 8,000 homes are abandoned annually in the city, and much of the 138 square miles of the city is languishing and unsafe.

It is a hard city to seed a renaissance because it is so big and unwieldy. Every square mile of San Francisco, Boston and the Bronx—combined—would fit inside its city limits. It also has decades of race troubles that haven’t diminished with its decline but rather intensified.

Yet if anyone can pull Detroit’s long-odds renewal off, Gilbert seems like the guy to bet on. He is passionate and wealthy, and he is unyielding, a trait that seems abundantly necessary for urban pioneers with a dream.

As for the bracket challenge, Gilbert has yet to announce whether he’ll offer another $1 billion payoff for next year’s NCAA tournament, although Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO, has volunteered to write the insurance policy. It’s a great gamble, and smart business, yet Gilbert’s already rolling the dice on Detroit, and some might call that a bet worthy of the risk.

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